Tappan Zee Bridge: Troopers will leave Tarrytown for West Nyack during project

Apr. 27, 2013

Tappan Zee Constructors is to sign a lease for this facility. / Peter Carr/The Journal News

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Harrison Yu, who manages his uncles business, Wedged-In Deli helps lunch customers April 26, 2013. The business is already benefiting from the Tappan Zee Bridge project because the bridge builder just moved 200 employees to a new office down the road. / Matthew Brown / The Journal News

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Tappan Zee Constructors is finalizing a deal that would temporarily move state police and Thruway Authority facilities from Tarrytown to West Nyack during construction of the new Tappan Zee Bridge, state officials confirmed Friday.

TZC is about to sign a lease for a 42,000-square-foot warehouse at 160 N. Route 303. It is the former site of The Journal News Rockland printing operation and is now owned by Hauser Brothers, a construction contracting group.

This latest deal comes just weeks after Tappan Zee Constructors moved hundreds of project employees to new, leased office space on Old White Plains Road in Tarrytown.

“It’s exciting,” said Paul Adler, vice president at Rand Commercial Services, which is handling the West Nyack deal. “Folks, particularly in commercial real estate, have been suffering. … To finally see the light at the end of the tunnel — and it’s not a train coming at you — is critically important.”

As part of the bridge project contract, TZC will tear down the existing state police and Thruway buildings on South Broadway and use the land as a construction staging area.

After the $4 billion project is completed, TZC will rebuild those facilities. In the meantime, it has agreed to pay to relocate those agencies.

The asking price for the West Nyack warehouse was $6.25 per square foot, according to a listing on Rand’s website.

Adler said Rand has been preparing to assist with the space needs of the Tappan Zee project since last year, including setting up a Web page, www.tappanzeebridgeinfo.com, which advertises various types of available properties in Westchester and Rockland.

In addition to commercial properties, Adler expects a growing demand for housing as project workers arrive in the area. That will benefit everyone, he said.

“Everything from the dry cleaners to the pizza shop to restaurants and hotels, all of them get a shot in the arm,” he said. “Coming out of the long, dark, deep recession, this is just the kind of bump people need to restart the engine.”

In fact, Wedged-in Deli and Catering at 605 Old White Plains Rd., not far from the new TZC office, is already getting a bump as occupants of the newly filled office space turn to the family operated business for their food needs.

“They have been ordering some catering from us and coming in during lunchtime,” deli manager Harrison Yu said. “It’s helping us, but we are definitely expecting more as construction goes full on.”

Brian Conybeare, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s special adviser on the project, called such signs “just the beginning of the positive economic impact” the project will have on the region.